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Topeka lawyer Dan Lykins will speak Saturday about interviewing Martin Luther King Jr. as a student at Kansas State University shortly before King was killed in 1968.

Lykins’ presentation, “My Day with Dr. King,” is the latest installment in a series of N-word summits organized by activist Sonny Scroggins as “a public rally for freedom, racial equality, and a celebration of the Bill of Rights.” The free event will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Menninger Room at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.

“I’ve known Sonny for probably 30 years,” Lykins said. “I know some people think he’s kind of controversial. Some people thought Dr. King was controversial, too.”

The goal of the speech, Lykins said, is “to bring some history to Topeka about Dr. King and maybe make people feel better about who he was, and maybe they will feel better about diversity.”

On Jan. 19, 1968, King spoke to a crowd of 7,200 students at K-State on the history of integration. Lykins interviewed him for the student radio station and took photos for the student newspaper.

For decades, the only audio and video of King’s appearance were believed to have been destroyed in a fire in December 1968. A minister in Wichita, who didn’t realize the audio had been lost, donated a tape from his attic in 2011.

Compared to a written copy of the speech, the audio indicates King ad-libbed most of what he said that day. Lykins plans to play a portion of the speech as part of his presentation.

King addressed a nearly all-white audience, nervous about how he would be perceived, Lykins said, and spoke about being discouraged with the progress of sit-ins, especially in the North.

“He said a lot of times when he gets depressed, he would go to a college campus, and he said the college students would give him more energy,” Lykins said. “He said that about K-State when the speech was over, during the interview. He said, ‘These students really gave me a lot of energy today. I feel a lot better today than before I started my speech because of the way I was treated, and the round of applause.’ And I was really proud, because there were a lot of universities who would not invite Dr. King to speak at that time because they thought he was too controversial.”

Students gave King several standing ovations, Lykins said.

Escaped convict James Earl Ray shot and killed King on April 4 on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. Lykins was in Nebraska working for Sen. Robert Kennedy in advance of a primary when he learned of the slaying.

“It was just shocking. Shocking. I couldn’t believe it,” Lykins said. “Of course, I couldn’t believe it a couple of months later when Sen. Kennedy was killed. It was not a good year.”

King died with a speech in his pocket. When the speech went up for auction a couple of years ago, a K-State graduate recognized the names of several people from the university.

“That night, Dr. King was going to say something about Kansas State,” Lykins said. “We’ll never know what it was going to be.”

Lykins said he went to the King museum while visiting Atlanta during the Final Four last year and was allowed to review a file on King’s connections with K-State.

“It’s obvious Dr. King’s coming to K-State had a big impact on him,” Lykins said. “He never knew how he would be treated in certain places, and at Kansas State, he didn’t know either, but he knew there would be an all-white crowd. And he was just treated wonderfully.”

Those who attend Saturday’s event will receive a free copy of a photo Lykins took of King standing at a podium in front of an “Every Man a Wildcat” banner.

Scroggins organizes the events to spark dialogue about the N-word, which he compares to a zombie because “it ain’t going anywhere.” The summits began with state education board member Steve Roberts reciting King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in September, months after invoking the N-word at a board meeting while discussing black history.

Scroggins said he hopes the summits will help knock down ethnic and socioeconomic stereotypes and invites the public to attend.

“Whether your neck is black, red, beige, freckled, mottled, young and smooth, old and weathered, or anything in between,” Scroggins said, “you’re going to be part of some genuine bridge building, culturally speaking.”

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It is interesting how many liberals - usually fans of the university east of Manhattan - make comments disparaging KSU without truly knowing anything about K-State being on the cutting edge of race relations. This is one more example of that indisputable fact. I'm very proud to be an alum of this great university. EMAW!!

You guys can literally turn anything into a KU and Kstate moment. I have never seen anything like it.

The real reason I'm posting is the absurdity of a "n" word summit. Sonny Scroggins being involved is a shocker said no one. The word literally has zero power these days. With modern generations as integrated and accepting as ever. The only way the word continues to have power and create a buzz is by the black leadership continuing to make it an issue. They are the ones that continue to live in the 1950's. I was born in a state and grew up in a area were my parents had seperate schools, proms, everything. When I go back home your hard pressed to find any trace of those days. But large up north cities are the ones that continue to perpetuate these issues. Have a meeting where we sit around and talk about a word. Silly.